Cosponsor the End Racial Profiling Act

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the 156 undersigned organizations, we urge you to cosponsor the End Racial Profiling Act of 2013 (ERPA), S.1038. Passage of this bill is needed to put an end to racial profiling by law enforcement officials and to ensure that individuals are not prejudicially stopped, investigated, arrested, or detained based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. Policies primarily designed to impact certain groups are ineffective and often result in the destruction of civil liberties for everyone.

ERPA would establish a prohibition on racial profiling, enforceable by declaratory or injunctive relief. The legislation would mandate training for federal law enforcement officials on racial profiling issues. As a condition of receiving federal funding, state, local, and Indian tribal law enforcement agencies would be required to collect data on both routine and spontaneous investigatory activities. The Department of Justice would be authorized to provide grants to state and local law enforcement agencies for the development and implementation of best policing practices, such as early warning systems, technology integration, and other management protocols that discourage profiling. Lastly, this important legislation would require the Attorney General to issue periodic reports to Congress assessing the nature of any ongoing racial profiling.

Racial profiling involves the unwarranted screening of certain groups of people, assumed by the police and other law enforcement agents to be predisposed to criminal behavior. Multiple studies have proven that racial profiling results in the misallocation of law enforcement resources and therefore a failure to identify actual crimes that are planned and committed. By relying on stereotypes rather than proven investigative procedures, law enforcement agencies and officials needlessly harm innocent people.

As is evident by recent events across the nation, racial profiling is a pervasive and harmful practice that negatively impacts both individuals and communities. Current federal law enforcement guidance and state laws provide incomplete solutions to the pervasive nationwide problem of racial profiling. Racial profiling results in a loss of trust and confidence in local, state, and federal law enforcement. Although most individuals are taught from an early age that the role of law enforcement is to fairly defend and guard communities from people who want to cause harm to others, this fundamental message is often contradicted when these same defenders are seen as unnecessarily and unjustifiably harassing innocent citizens. Criminal investigations are flawed and hindered because people and communities impacted by these stereotypes are less likely to cooperate with law enforcement agencies they have grown to mistrust. We can begin to reestablish trust in law enforcement if we act now.

Your support for the End Racial Profiling Act of 2013 is critical to its passage. We urge you to cosponsor this vital legislation, which will ensure that federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies are prohibited from impermissibly considering race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion in carrying out law enforcement activities. To become a cosponsor, please contact Sarenka Smith in Senator Cardin’s office at Sarenka_Smith@cardin.senate.gov or (202) 224-4524. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Lexer Quamie at (202) 466-3648 or Nancy Zirkin at (202) 263-2880. Thank you for your valued consideration of this critical legislation.

Sincerely,

National Organizations

9to5

A. Philip Randolph Institute

African American Ministers in Action

American Civil Liberties Union

American Humanist Association

American Probation and Parole Association

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Arab American Family Support Center

Arab American Institute

Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC

Asian Americans Advancing Justice - ALC

Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles

Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance

Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Blacks in Law Enforcement in America

Break the Cycle

Breakthrough

Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law

Campaign for Community Change

Campaign for Youth Justice

Center for National Security Studies

Council on American-Islamic Relations

Council on Illicit Drugs of the National Association for Public Health Policy